These Travel Experts Reveal Their Dream Vacations

Whether you’re dreaming of shopping the souks of Morocco or eating your way through a kimchi tour in Seoul, everyone has a travel fantasy that trip you’d take if the stars and your bank account and vacation days all aligned. Even the pros that work in the industry are prone to visions of vacation grandeur.
So, we chatted with the experts to see what’s on their bucket lists. Among them there are hoteliers, a bag designer, a travel specialist who books six-figure trips for fashion brands and an ’80s heartthrob who’s now on the forefront of travel journalism. Let find out These Travel Experts Reveal Their Dream Vacations below.

These Travel Experts Reveal Their Dream Vacations 

James and Tamara Lohan

We have three trips in mind and the first is Japan. We’ve been waiting for our kids to be old enough to experience the craziness that is Tokyo it would blow their minds. We’d also love to visit the mountains in Japan. We’ve heard that skiing there is, as our eight year old would say, epic. The second trip is Costa Rica. Each year we like to do something adventurous and for 2016 Costa Rica is high on the list.
Any hotel where you can arrive by white water rafting, like you can at the Pacuare Lodge in Limón, deserves a place on a bucket list. Last, a visit to Argentina would be a trip down memory lane. I spent two years living in South America and nowhere felt quite as Latin as Buenos Aires. I’d like to go back and lose myself in the Tango in the streets again, see how things have changed, and also ride out into the endless countryside.

Andrew McCarthy

Travel writer and guest editor of The Best American Travel Writing 2015 not to mention the star of such movie classics as Pretty in Pink and Mannequin. I’d like to swim with whales and see the Northern Lights, plus I’ve always wanted to hike the Paine circuit in Patagonia.
I’d also like to cross the Sahara. I was there once for a few days and found it not at all what I expected and I liked the effect the place had on me. I want to go to Burma before the McDonald’s gets there. In that vein, I better hurry to Cuba. And as Audrey Hepburn once said, Paris is always nice.

Francesca Bonato

Fashion designer and owner of the Coqui Coqui hotels and spas in Mexico. My dream is to visit the Siwa oasis in Egypt. I’d stay at the Adrère Amellal hotel and go to the market to hunt for treasures and fabrics for inspiration. I’d also love to head out into the desert to stargaze and stay in a local Bedouin camp.
I’d enjoy the regional vegetarian food that’s rich in spices and flavor, including bessara and baladi bread. I’ve been to Egypt before, but I never made it to the Siwa oasis. I love the idea that it’s in the middle of nowhere and I find the concept of an oasis the expression of life and survival in a great expanse of nothingness really intriguing. I’ve also always been fascinated by the Berber people. It’s a beautiful culture.

Chef Enrique Olvera

Culinary mastermind behind new hotel restaurant Manta at the Cape, a Thompson Hotel in Cabo San Lucas and Moxi at the Hotel Matilda in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I’m dying to go to Istanbul, New Delhi and Bangkok. I see a connection between our Mexican flavor profile and the culinary profiles of these destinations. I’d experience both the street food culture and the contemporary restaurants that are offering unpretentious food with lots of flavor. That is once of These Travel Experts Reveal Their Dream Vacations.

Isadora McKeon

Director of Marketing & Communications at Bunkhouse, a hotel group that includes Austin’s boutique retreats Hotel Saint Cecilia and Hotel San Jose. I would love to take a long, ambling trip through North Africa, from Marrakech to Alexandria. I want to see the Blue City of Chefchaouen and visit the Master Musicians of Jajouka, who perform this 1200 years old Sufi trance music William S. Burroughs, Timothy Leary and Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones were among those who made pilgrimages to hear their music in the 1960s.
There are the Roman ruins at Dougga in Tunisia, and the Museum Dar Essid with its layers of ornate Islamic design. I would dedicate a fair amount of time to exploring the hammams, making sure to stop for a day or two at La Sultana in Marrakech, which looks sublime. I also have a dream of diving at Heracleion, the ancient sunken Egyptian city off the coast of Alexandria. The pictures of it are completely unbelievable, straight out of a James Bond movie. That is once of These Travel Experts Reveal Their Dream Vacations.